After two years marked by the Covid, the women's ready-to-wear week which ends on Tuesday was thought of as "a kind of reunion" but it was impossible to "celebrate" this against the backdrop of the invasion of Ukraine, Fashion Federation president Ralph Toledano told AFP.
He had called from the first day to live the parades "in gravity".
And fashion has responded.
Although designed several months earlier, many of the collections are full of "protective" pieces and the aesthetics of the shows are anything but optimistic.
"Smell of Time"
"The world has been serious for a while, fashion has largely integrated feelings of seriousness (...). It is imbued with the smell of time," fashion historian Olivier Saillard told AFP.
"There was an all-terrain outfit at Dior, quite appropriate, as a premonitory," he adds.
Dior show in Paris, March 1, 2022 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP
At Dior, airbags are worn in corsets or vests, a little gray dress evokes armor and protections cover the shoulders and ankles.
"There is a lot of thought. How, in these difficult times, to combine beauty, aesthetics and protection?", explains to AFP the Italian designer of Dior woman, Maria Grazia Chiuri.
The war in Ukraine "is much closer to us. But the world was already at war. The Covid was another war (...), we lived through extremely difficult months".
Balmain also presented padded corsets, tops resembling futuristic bulletproof vests and golden shields.
Balmain show in Paris, March 2, 2022 STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN AFP
“My collection may seem inspired by anxiety-provoking headlines. (…) But, of course, such a rapid reaction would never have been possible”, nuances the stylist of Balmain, Olivier Rousteing.
The Belgian Anthony Vaccarello, artistic director of Saint Laurent, broke with his "sexy glam" aesthetic for the first time to deliver a poetic parade at the foot of the Eiffel Tower "which suggests a moment of reflection".
Black, long dresses, tuxedo trouser suits and sumptuous faux fur coats: there is no longer any place for provocation.
Saint Laurent fashion show in Paris, March 1, 2022 JULIEN DE ROSA AFP
At the Japanese Yohji Yamamoto, certain looks covering from head to toe, with several layers of draped or padded fabrics, resemble tents.
The American Rick Owens, master of apocalyptic parades, presented a show accompanied by Gustav Mahler's symphony N.5, creating a dreamlike and solemn moment.
In a thick fog stood out the silhouettes of long dresses with shimmering gray trains and heavy down jackets.
Rick Owens fashion show in Paris, March 3, 2022 Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT AFP
"The theme of protection was very present this week - like the huge enveloping and padded coats at Rick Owens in which you feel protected, comforted... It was the same thing in London" (mid-February), comments to AFP Dana Thomas, American journalist and author of "Fashionopolis".
poem and song
Does fashion anticipate the convulsions of history?
This is the question posed by Benjamin Simmenauer, professor at the French Fashion Institute, in a post published by the French daily Liberation.
“It is true that fashion often anticipates its future states and informs us about a given era,” he writes.
Balenciaga's show imagined by Demna, the Georgian designer himself a refugee from a war with Russia, was a declaration of love and support for Ukraine, with a poem recited in Ukrainian during the show, T- shirts in the colors of Ukraine placed on each seat and a note explaining that fashion lost "its right to exist" during the war.
The models walked on the snow braving the wind, some half-naked, evoking refugees fleeing war.
At Vuitton, the latest look - a wide striped T-shirt over a flowing floral dress - is in blue and yellow, colors of Ukraine.
A subtle way to place the show in context.
Louis Vuitton show in Paris, March 7, 2022 JULIEN DE ROSA AFP
Stella McCartney opened her show with a speech by US President John Fitzgerald Kennedy ("We will also do our part to build a world of peace") and closed with the John Lennon/Yoko Ono song "Give Peace a Chance".
© 2022 AFP